The power of choice.

I have an area of my nutrition practice where I have somewhat conflicting views that can happen.

It’s the cross between making hard choices (and often hard to commit) to avoiding foods that are not doing you any favours and thus likely impacting health, versus not making food a big stress in your life.

Based on seeing certain symptoms I will make suggestions such as “avoid gluten and dairy” in order to correct X, where X is some important health issue.  This is tempered with also realizing those changes are not always easy nor convenient.  Not wanting to add a burden of change to an already likely stressed person dealing with some form of health issue or digestive discomfort, it is a big ask sometimes.

It’s a trade off.  Making a change so you can start to see improvements and first hand notice that by removing what may be part of, or more likely, a huge source of your health concern, can help make that change more “doable”.  But piling a big task like finding different foods to eat on top of hard to manage symptoms can feel overwhelming.  I get it.

Food is a big part of our lives. It is what builds us, right at our cellular level, but it is also what we use when we gather, when we celebrate, when we are upset.  We have habits that feel familiar and easy.  

Balancing how we physically feel and function against our food habits, and maybe even addictions, can be difficult. 

It comes down to prioritizing and realizing that foods can make the biggest impact on our health and how we feel and function.

My suggestion?  Start with one.  One meal. One food. One day.  See how you feel and then move on to the next day.

Enjoy your week!

Lisa.